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Monday, April 20, 2009

MICHAEL RECYCLE MEETS LITTERBUG DOUG

AUTHOR: Ellie Bethel
ILLUSTRATOR:  Alexandra Colombo
Review copy provided by publisher

Earth Day is Wednesday. The teachers and kids at my school are making big plans to pick up trash, plant flowers, and beautify our school grounds. And me? Well, I'm sure I will be out helping with the cleanup, but I've got other plans too. I've got a fun new read aloud and I'm looking forward to sharing it. Just listen to the first page…

In a beautiful valley,
in the shade of a hill
was a clean little town,
that was full of goodwill.

But the quaint little town
had a problem to face
for on top of the hill
stood a mountain of waste!

And who was
the culprit?
Who was the thug?
It was lonely and lazy boned…

LITTERBUG DOUG!

Doug is a complete and total slob. He and his two tabby cats, along with one hundred rats, live at the top of an enormous and stinky pile of trash. Doug is  perfectly content with his life until the day he meets the famous green-caped crusader, Michael Recycle…

I know kids are going to love the sing-songy HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS rhyme style of this book. I also think they will love the detailed, cartoonish illustrations, which are kind of a cross between MEAN JEAN, THE RECESS QUEEN and a sophisticated version of the  RUGRATS. The book also has a couple of really interesting appendixes- one full of fascinating statistics about trash (did you know that in 2007 the average American threw away five pounds of trash per day, or 1600 pounds over the course of the year?) There is another appendix about how kids can recycle. 

Happy Earth Day!

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